The present invention relates to Japanese Application 111019/99 (filed Sep. 24, 1999), from which priority is claimed.
The present invention is one that relates to an electronic musical instrument that is made so that various settings for the electronic musical instrument can be carried out by remote control and more particularly by a remote terminal on the client side through a communications circuit such as the Internet.
In the past, large instruments such as those that are made in a unit with the room such as, for example, a pipe organ, have been achieved and marketed as an electronic musical instrument having an electronic sound source installed. These kinds of electronic musical instruments normally are assembled at the venue in which they are installed (church, hotel or hall) and, at the time of the installation, the tuning of the sound is matched to the acoustics of the venue. Each type of the complex parameters that are accommodated within the electronic musical instrument is connected to a terminal device and set and changed.
However, with regard to the setting of the inner portion of the electronic musical instrument concerned, it is necessary to make the settings in a form that is appropriate to each of the venues in which it is placed. Moreover, a large number of parameters exists for which setting and changing are required. In order to properly set and change these parameters, it is necessary to take into account, in addition to, of course, the size of the venue, such things as, for example, the materials of the walls and the floor. In addition, even in the same venue, since there are subtle changes in the acoustics due to such factors as the temperature, humidity and the number of people accommodated on that day, it is also necessary to carry out the settings to take into account these factors.
Because of this, the work to set and change these parameters is in fact difficult for someone with knowledge at the serviceman level and it is, at any rate, necessary for a technician who has specialized knowledge to go to the installed venue and set the parameters.
In addition, as was discussed above, since even though it is the same venue, there are subtle changes in the acoustics due to such factors as the temperature, humidity and the number of people accommodated on that day, it becomes necessary to reset the electronic musical instrument to conform to these factors on the day of the performance. However, because it is not always possible for a specialist technician to visit the installation venue, this kind of delicate resetting may be difficult and, even if it were possible, it would take a significant amount of time and labor. In particular, this may be especially true in those cases where the installed venue is in a foreign country.
Furthermore, even if the setting can be done correctly temporarily, there are times when it is necessary to redo the setting, for example, when another operator subsequently adds an erroneous operation after a setting has been done.
The present invention takes into consideration the aforementioned problems and, in preferred embodiments, comprises an electronic musical instrument with which it is possible to easily carry out the setting and resetting of the electronic musical instrument for which specialized knowledge is required.
In order to address the problems discussed above, an electronic musical instrument according to embodiments of the present invention is equipped with a communications circuit interface section with which communications is carried out with an external device. Communications may be carried out by means, for example, of the TCP/IP protocol via a communications circuit. An electronic musical instrument according to embodiments of the present invention further includes an HTTP server function section with which the HTTP protocol is used. Data is exchanged between the communications circuit and the connected external device via the above mentioned communications circuit interface, and a control device in which data, including operation setting data for the computer control of the electronic musical instrument, is exchanged with the above mentioned HTTP server function section.
The control device also includes sensors with which the data for the setting environment of the electronic musical instrument is detected and made the operating setting data.
The external devices (such as a browser terminal, etc.) that are placed in a location that is separated from the electronic musical instrument carry out communications via the communications circuit and with the TCP/IP protocol via the communications circuit interface section of the electronic musical instrument. The operating setting data for the electronic musical instrument carries out remote operations via the HTTP server function. Accordingly, it is possible for an ordinary user to suitably carry out complex settings without the need for a technician having specialized knowledge regarding the parameter settings for the electronic musical instrument to visit the installation venue for the electronic musical instrument each time an adjustment or setting is desired.